Public policies reviewed related to natural disasters in Brazil between 1990 - 2014

Relationship between Payment for Ecosystem Services Programs and Disasters in Southeast Atlantic Forest region, Brazil

“…Actions were related to the increase in vegetation cover along streams, river, springs and water recharge sites, all of them Permanent Preservation Areas (APP: Área de Preservação Permanente), protected areas inside private rural land where direct economic use is not allowed according to New Forest Code (Brasil 2012) and the law mandates Implemented practices such as green manure planting, direct planting, agroforestry, fencing and fire breaks were verified in PES projects that could help in the provision of a variety of ecosystem services, especially regulating services, but the importance and provision of these services were not made explicit in PES calls. In addition, forest recovery in abandoned land, another action verified in the studied PES projects, connects vegetation through corridors in the Vale do Paraíba fragments (Silva et al 2016) and may prevent degradation processes and natural hazards, which again was not mentioned as a preventive action against disasters. We believe that a table presenting predicted actions in the PES projects and each ecosystem service related to each action would be of great importance to education of target audience and decision makers and management and monitoring of public policies.…”

“…Damage to ecosystem stability and resilience directly affects intensity, frequency and duration of extreme events (Dey & Lewis 2021). In Brazil, although extreme natural events have been recurrent since the 16th century, with landslides in Rio de Janeiro hills (Sternberg 1949, Jones 1973, public policies related to disasters are very recent, dating from the 1990s, with the main focus on mitigation and not prevention (Silva et al 2016). The National Policy on Civil Defense (Law 12.608/2012, Brasil 2012, is known to be the first federal law to prioritize disaster reduction risk and prevention over help and assistance to affected population.…”

“…The Paraíba do Sul River basin sits on the fringe between the major metropolitan areas of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro (the biggest Brazilian cities). Although populous, the mostly rural valley is currently characterized by a patchy landscape of tropical forest remnants and pastures (Sapucci et al 2021) and has become a focus for regeneration of the Atlantic Forest biome (Silva et al 2016) and several restoration and conservation projects (observatorio-darestauracao.org.br), receiving significant amount of funds from national and international organizations. Besides all that, natural disasters, such as recurrent floods, droughts, an-thropogenic fires and erosion problems associated with hilly reliefs (INPE 2021, AGEVAP 2020) make the region of great relevance and need for studies relating PES projects and ecosystem services with the prevention of natural disaster events.…”